Re: some details on St. Lucie

["Mitchell Davis" <radiation@cox.net>]

I am perplexed by this.  I have been involved in nuclear plant work (outside

my 8 yr Navy career) since 1987.  This sort of thing happens frequently.

Not that it is supposed to, but it just does.  I have been at many plants

that during refueling we "lose containment" to airborne.  It happens for

various reasons.  Some controllable, others not.  The exposures received are

within the applicable regulatory constraints.  I certainly understand the

NRC's concern as these were unplanned exposures.  Are they serious exposures

which require some type of health issue assessment?  Absolutely not!!  Do

they require some sort of investigation as to what went wrong and to find a

way to prevent these from happing in the future?  Yes but only from a

planning stand point.  I do not understand how individuals working in an

environment of radioactivity are expected to receive zero dose.  It is going

to happen!!!  That is part of the "risk" in employment in this industry.  To

not have exposure would be like saying a welder should not be exposed to the

brightness of the weld field as he/she completes a weld field.  When are we

as professionals going to stop this madness by simply admitting that there

are risks associated with this profession?  Anybody want to be a fisherman

in Alaska?



Mitchell W. Davis, RRPT

Health Physicist

915-697-3523

915-349-4824 Cell

radiation@cox.net

----- Original Message -----

From: Michael G. Stabin <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>

To: radsafe <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 8:18 AM

Subject: some details on St. Lucie





>

> I have some details about the St. Lucie exposures, from a colleague who

> works there (Pete Bailey). He describes the exercise of the dose followup

as

> "MegaCalcs of FemtoDose", which I think describes a lot of HP work,

> reminiscent of "Atom Man", pictured in an HP newsletter some years ago as

a

> little guy with a butterfly net chasing an individual radioactive atom.

>

> (all comments with the ">" are from Mr. Bailey)

>

> > There was no "release" of activity in the emergency planning sense.

> > It all stayed in the containment . . .

> >

> > Within the containment, there was a task to clean the reactor head

> > in preparation for visual inspection.

> >

> > The cleaning occurred 'down ' in the refueling cavity,

> > about 40 feet below the operating deck.

> >

> > We knew the cleaning area could become 'airborne' ; that is,

> > the cleaning process could move some of the radiactive material into the

> > air.

> >

> > The people 'down there' doing the cleaning were wearing respirators, in

> addition to

> > the anit-contamination clothing, plastic 'rainsuits', boots, etc.

> >

> > People in other locations of the containment building were wearing

> > the standard anti-contamination clothing.  Their jobs did not require

> > respirators.  Most of the jobs were on the operating deck.

> >

> > The cleaning process generated more 'airborne'  than was anticipated.

> >

> > The 'airborne' activity was moved by fans ( for cooling equipment &

> people )

> > to many locations within the containment.

> >

> > Some , not all, of the 'other'  ( non-cleaning crew ) people inhaled

some

> of this

> > cloud as the left the containment.

> >

> > I've been very ( very very ) involved with the dose assessment of the

> > event.

> >

> > For all those people that had a measureable intake, the highest whole

body

> dose

> > is about 21 millirem.  This is about 0.4% (four-tenths of one percent)

of

> the

> > annual limit for radiation workers.

>

> (Stabin's note) - applying the BERT concept, this highest value is

> equivalent to the dose that these workers would have received in about 25

> days of exposure to natural background radiation.

>

>

> Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP

> Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

> Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

> Vanderbilt University

> 1161 21st Avenue South

> Nashville, TN 37232-2675

> Phone (615) 343-0068

> Fax   (615) 322-3764

> e-mail     michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu

> internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com

>

>

>

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